January 2016 Furious mum slams sentence handed down to grinning pervert A GRINNING groper from Howwood who molested two innocent teenagers in his care was all smiles after he escaped a prison sentence. But the girl’s mother was furious that former RAF man Brian Lauder had been handed a ‘soft’ community sentence, saying he’d put her and her family “through hell”. She said Lauder had been left alone with her girls because she trusted him implicitly. But a court heard that he abused that trust by pawing the youngsters and squeezing their breasts when he was left alone with them. When he appeared for sentence at Livingston Sheriff Court, Lauder was told his name would remain on the sex offenders register for three years. But instead of the jail sentence, which the mum and her daughters expected, he was put on probation for one offence and given a community payback order for a second. Sheriff Martin Edington imposed special conditions that Lauder, 50, enrol in the three-year Moving Forward, Making Changes course run by the Pathways Project in Paisley to “rehabilitate” him. Speaking after Lauder’s sentencing the girls’ distraught mother spoke of her anguish and anger at the “leniency” shown to Lauder whom she expected to go to jail for his sickening crimes. Speaking through tears, she said: “We’ve been going to counselling every week since this happened. We’ve been through hell. “I’ve got one daughter that shut down totally and the other went right off the rails. It’s me that’s been left to deal with the aftermath yet he’s still walking free.” She added: “It’s us that’s got to pick up the pieces and try to deal with the emotional and mental damage he’s inflicted on us as a family. “I just hope he doesn’t get in with another family and do the same thing to them that he’s done to us. I just want as many people as possible to know what he’s capable of so no one else has to go through what we’ve been through.” Lauder earlier pleaded guilty on the morning of his trial to two charges of sexually abusing the youngsters and had sentence deferred for reports. He initially denied using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices towards one of the girls on various occasions between January 1, 2009, and November 30, 2011 when she was between the ages of 13 and 15. He had also denied engaging in sexual activity with his first victim’s 14-year-old sister on August 4, 2014 at a property in West Lothian. The court was told that he at first told the girls’ mother he had touched them accidentally. However, she did not believe him and decided to call the police. Lauder, 50, moved from West Lothian to his home village of Howwood after he was released on bail. The court heard the first incident happened as the girl was standing looking into a mirror in the dining room when she was alone in the house with Lauder. She was uncomfortable with how close he was standing to her and recalled him ‘groping’ one of her breasts with his hand while making a grunting sound. Lauder stopped when they heard the sound of a car horn which she believed was her mother outside calling her to give her a lift. Although she didn’t discuss the incident at the time she later described it to her sister to provide some support, then to her mother and to the police. The second sister was collecting personal belongings to go and stay with a friend when she was abused. As she was leaving Lauder gave her a cuddle but moved his hands from her waist to her chest area and squeezed and rubbed her breasts over her clothing. The teenager told police he had also made a comment about her ‘big boobs’. Although she didn’t say anything at the time, she later told her sister what had happened and both sisters decided that they had to disclose the abuse to their mother. When Lauder was asked by their mother why he had done it, he made comments like: ‘I don’t know’, ‘How do you think I feel?’ and ‘I know I shouldn’t have done it’.